Fact, not fiction

I was in my school when Bangladesh became independent at the clarion call of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. There was tremendous expectation in the minds of people to transform Bangladesh. People were ready to sacrifice their personal interests for nation building.

Unfortunately, Bangladeshis had never governed before. Politicians failed to understand that politics and administration couldn't be blended together. The judiciary, the legislative and the executive branches of a government must function on their own without any influence of the other.Bangabandhu deserves credit for assembling key academicians, notables and intellectuals to head important policy making institutions like the Planning Commission. It was very foresighted for a man who had no administrative experience to think in that direction. His deputy Tajuddin Ahmed also deserves special mention for his contribution. But it soon became apparent that there were too many political undercurrents and counter-currents that created an eddy for the ruling Awami League. Sycophancy, nepotism and partisanship ruined everything in spite of the most progressive constitution a newly independent underdeveloped country could have imagined. Then Bangladesh went through a turbulent era when two presidents were assassinated and military dictatorship continued till the late nineties.

After restoration of democracy it was hoped that the spirit of 1971 could be revived. But actually what we have seen is the rise of dynasty, total disregard of democratic practices, shameless politicisation of the judiciary and administration including law enforcing agencies, generation of heaps of wealth by the ruling parties through illegal means, absolute unaccountability to the people on whose votes they had occupied the parliamentary seats, rise of muscle power, brawn over brain, fundamentalism, black money in electioneering and indulgence of family members in power peddling.

The last five years under BNP and their war criminal fundamentalist allies Jamaat-e- Islami have seen the total ruin of nationhood and moral decadence at its zenith never seen before. Police barbarism by partisan recruits of the ruling party has exposed the ugly face of the BNP-Jamaat alliance. They began there tenure by committing atrocities against the minorities and then resorting to wiping out the opposition through al-Qaeda operatives nurtured openly by Jamaat, and hopefully, finally bringing their misrule to an end by being forced to capture government sponsored terrorists under international duress. The last act should be a free and fair election under international pressure.

In Bangladesh's history no other government has faltered like the present one. If this government stays in power the world will see the rise of Islamic terrorism in its most violent form. Remember, truckloads of tons of modern weapons have vanished within Bangladesh after offloading in Chittagong. No crime is pursued or revealed to the public. This government has not only failed but will carry the blame for turning Bangladesh into a failed state.